Overview and CQC Inspections

OverallGood

Our inspector's description of this service

Last updated 15 June 2019
The inspection

We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (the Act) as part of our regulatory functions. This inspection was planned to check whether the provider was meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Act, to look at the overall quality of the service, and to provide a rating for the service under the Care Act 2014.

Inspection team

One inspector carried out the site visit. Two inspectors made telephone calls to gather feedback from people.

Service and service type

This service is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care and support to people living in their own homes.

The service had a manager registered with the Care Quality Commission. This means that they and the provider are legally responsible for how the service is run and for the quality and safety of the care provided.

Notice of inspection

We gave the service 48 hours’ notice of the inspection visit because we needed to be sure the registered manager would be available to support the inspection.

Before the inspection

We used the information the provider sent us in the provider information return (PIR). This is information providers are required to send us with key information about their service, what they do well, and improvements they plan to make. This information helps support our inspections.

We reviewed the evidence we had about the service. This included any notifications of significant events, such as serious injuries or safeguarding referrals. Notifications are information about important events which the provider is required to send us by law.

During the inspection

Inspection site visit activity started and ended on 16 May 2019. We visited the office location on this date to see the registered manager and to review care records and policies and procedures.

We checked care records for three people, including their assessments, care plans and risk assessments. We looked at four staff files and records of staff training and supervision. We also checked records including satisfaction surveys, complaints, accident and incident records, quality monitoring checks and audits.

After the inspection

We spoke with four people who used the service and four relatives by telephone to hear their views about the care and support provided. Two people sent us feedback about the agency by email. We received feedback from six staff about the training and support they received from the agency to carry out their roles.

Inspection ratings

We rate most services according to how safe, effective, caring, responsive and well-led they are, using four levels:

Outstanding – the service is performing exceptionally well.

Good – the service is performing well and meeting our expectations.

Requires improvement – the service isn't performing as well as it should and we have told the service how it must improve.

Inadequate – the service is performing badly and we've taken enforcement action against the provider of the service.

No rating/under appeal/rating suspended – there are some services which we can’t rate, while some might be under appeal from the provider. Suspended ratings are being reviewed by us and will be published soon.

Ticks and crosses

We don't rate every type of service. For services we haven't rated we use ticks and crosses to show whether we've asked them to take further action or taken enforcement action against them.

There's no need for the service to take further action. If this service has not had a CQC inspection since it registered with us, our judgement may be based on our assessment of declarations and evidence supplied by the service.

The service must make improvements.

At least one standard in this area was not being met when we inspected the service and we have taken enforcement action.